360

SPITBOL 360 is an implementation of the SNOBOL4 programming language for use on IBM 360 compatible computers.

SPITBOL 360 was the first true compiler for SNOBOL4 and is an incredibly clever work of assembly language. It was written by Robert B. K. Dewar and Kenneth E. Belcher while both were at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

SPITBOL 360 README FILE

7/7/2015 Packaged files in git repository, created README.md from Bob Goldberg's readme.txt (Dave Shields)
11/08/2001 Updated for Hercules AWS installation (Bob Goldberg)
8/20/2001 Initial Version (Bob Goldberg)

Readme Contents

What is SPITBOL 360?
Provided files
Installation Overview
General Installation
Hercules AWS Intallation
Reassembling the Compiler
Acknowledgments

What is SPITBOL 360?

SPITBOL 360 [*] is an implementation of the SNOBOL4 programming language for use on IBM 360 compatible computers. SPITBOL is considerably smaller than the original implementation of SNOBOL4 and has execution speeds up to ten times faster. For certain programs, notably those with in-line patterns, the gain in speed may be even greater.

Unlike SIL SNOBOL4[**], which is an interpreter, SPITBOL is a true compiler which generates executable machine code. Of course, the complexity of the SNOBOL4 language dictates that system subroutines be used for many common functions.

SPITBOL can be run as an 'in-core' 'load-and-go' system like WATFIV, where programs are executed as soon as they are compiled. Alternately, the compiler can generate object modules that can be linked with a run-time library to create load modules for later execution.

SPITBOL 360 was originally distributed under license, for a fee.[***] Effective November, 2001, SPITBOL 360 is distributed under the General Public License (GPL) v2, for no fee.

[*] SPITBOL = SPeedy ImplemenTation of SNOBOL4

[**] The original SNOBOL4 implementation from Bell Telephone Laboratories was developed by R. E. Griswold and I. Polonsky, the designers of the SNOBOL4 programming language. Thus, this reference implementation is often referred to as BTL SNOBOL4. In the early 1970s, after Griswold left BTL for The University of Arizona and continued SNOBOL4 distribution from there, this implementation gained another name: SIL SNOBOL4. (SIL = SNOBOL4 Implementation Language)

[***] SPITBOL 360 was distributed from 1971 until 1984 when it was superseded by SPITBOL 370.

Provided files

The directory ./dist contains the following files:

spitbol_360.tar.gz SPITBOL 360 EBCDIC files, for installation on IBM 360 compatible computer
spitbol_360.zip SPITBOL 360 EBCDIC files, for installation on IBM 360 compatible computer
spitbol_360_aws.tar.gz AWS tape file for easy Herculer installation.
spitbol_360_aws.zip AWS tape file for easy Herculer installation.
spitbol_360_source.tar.gz SPITBOL 360 source files only
spitbol_360_source.zip SPITBOL 360 source files only

The files in the main directory include the source files, the manual, and the SPITBOL Newsletters.

Installation Overview

The next two sections describe the installation procedures for SPITBOL 360. The first section, "General Installation," describes an installation procedure that can be used on both "real" mainframes as well as Hercules emulated mainframes. A simplified Hercules installation, based on an AWS tape file, is described in the "Hercules AWS Installation" section. Users following the Hercules AWS installation procedure should still read the "General Installation" section for perspective.

General Installation

Take care when using a file transfer programs to transfer these distribution files between machines! You MUST use a binary transfer mode to move each of the EBCDIC files. For example, if using FTP, set mode to Binary.

Below is a list of the files contained in the distribution ZIP/TAR file. All files are EBCDIC except for the first two files which are provided in ASCII as a convenience to users.

File	Name	Contents
1	README.TXT (ASCII) Readme file (translation of README)
2	GPL.TXT (ASCII) General Public License text (translation of GPL)
3	README Readme file
4	GPL General Public License
5	SBOLOBJ Object files to create SPITBOL compiler
6	LINKSBOL Sample JCL to link SPITBOL compiler
7	TESTPGMS Compiler test programs
8	TESTSBOL Sample JCL to run compiler test programs
9	SLIBOBJ Object files to create SPITPROG runtime
10	LINKSPRG Sample JCL to link SPITPROG runtime
11	OSINT OSINT assembler source
12	SPITBOL SPITBOL assembler source
13	TFSV23 TFs for SPITBOL and SPITPROG

ALL EBDCIC distribution files are sequential card image files, with DCB attributes RECBM=FB and LRECL=80.

Installation is quite simple: only four files need be loaded onto your system, followed by a link edit and test run.

Step 1: Create datasets

Create two datasets:

(1) a SPITBOL.SRC PDS (SOURCE LIB) to receive object files, sample JCL, and test programs

(2) a SPITBOL.LOAD PDS (LOAD LIB) to receive the output of the linkage editor

Step 2: Populate the SPITBOL PDS

Load the following files into your SPITBOL PDS:

File	Name	Contents
5	SBOLOBJ	Object files to create SPITBOL compiler
6	LINKSBOL	Sample JCL to link SPITBOL compiler
7	TESTPGMS	Compiler test programs
8	TESTSBOL	Sample JCL to run compiler test programs

Step 3: Link SPITBOL Compiler

Member LINKSBOL contains sample JCL to link the SPITBOL compiler. Examine, modify, and run.

    //.. JOB ....
    // EXEC LKED
    //SYSLMOD   DD  DSN=SPITBOL.LOAD,DISP=SHR
    //OBJS      DD  DSN=SPITBOL.SRC,DISP=SHR
    //SYSIN     DD  *
     INCLUDE OBJS(SBOLOBJ)
     ENTRY OSINT
     NAME SPITBOL(R)
    /*

Step 4: Test compiler

Run the test programs provided with the distribution. Note that you only have to run the compiler once; SPITBOL 360 supports its own batching of jobs. Member TESTSBOL contains sample JCL to run the test programs. Examine, modify and run.

    //.. JOB ....
    // EXEC PGM=SPITBOL,REGION=512K
    //STEPLIB   DD  DSN=SPITBOL.LOAD,DISP=SHR
    //SYSPRINT  DD  SYSOUT=A
    //SYSPUNCH  DD  DUMMY
    //SYSIN     DD  DSN=SPITBOL.SRC(TESTPGMS),DISP=SHR

SPITBOL 360 is happiest in regions of 192K or more.

You're done! ENJOY!

Optional Step 5: Link SPITPROG Runtime Library

This step is optional.

SPITPROG is needed only if you plan to create load modules from your SPITBOL programs. Since SPITBOL 360 is a load-and-go compiler, linking of compiled programs is not required for them to be run.

Load the following files into your SPITBOL PDS:

FIle	Name	Contents
9	SLIBOBJ	Object files to create SPITPROG runtime
10	LINKSPRG	Sample JCL to link SPITPROG runtime

Member LINKSLIB contains sample JCL to link the SPITBOL runtime library. Examine, modify, and run.

    //.. JOB ....
    // EXEC LKED
    //SYSLMOD   DD  DSN=SPITBOL.LOAD,DISP=SHR
    //OBJS      DD  DSN=SPITBOL.SRC,DISP=SHR
    //SYSIN     DD  *
     INCLUDE OBJS(SLIBOBJ)
     ENTRY OSINT
     NAME SPITPROG(R)
    /*

To compile and link a SPITBOL program:

    //.. JOB ....
    // EXEC PGM=SPITBOL
    //STEPLIB   DD  DSN=SPITBOL.LOAD,DISP=SHR
    //SYSPRINT  DD  SYSOUT=A
    //SYSPUNCH  DD  DUMMY
    //SYSOBJ    DD  DSN=&OBJ,UNIT=...,SPACE=(...),
    //              DCB=(RECFM=FB,LRECL=80,BLKSIZE=1600),DISP=(NEW,PASS)
    //SYSIN     DD  *
    -NOEXECUTE
    <program goes here>
    /*
    // EXEC LKED
    //SYSLMOD   DD  DSN=<your load lib>,DISP=SHR
    //LIB       DD  DSN=SPITBOL.LOAD,DISP=SHR
    //OBJ       DD  DSN=&OBJ,DISP=(OLD,DELETE)
    //SYSIN     DD  *
     INCLUDE LIB(SPITPROG)
     INCLUDE OBJ
     ENTRY OSINT
     NAME FOO
    /*

See SPITBOL Newsletter #1, which is contained in the SPITBOL 360 Manual PDF file, for the original instructions circa 1971.

Hercules AWS Installation

IMPORTANT! You MUST have Hercules 2.14a or later in order to run SPITBOL 360. Hercules 2.14a includes a fix to its floating point instruction emulation that is required for SPITBOL to execute properly.

Below is a list of the files contained in the distribution ZIP/TAR file.

File Name Contents| |----:|:-------------|:----------------------------------------------| | 1 |README.TXT |(ASCII) Readme file| | 2 |GPL.TXT |(ASCII) General Public License text| | 3 |SPT-LOAD.JCL |(ASCII) JCL to load files from AWS tape file| | 4 |SPT-LINK.JCL |(ASCII) JCL to link SPITBOL load module| | 5 |SPT-TEST.JCL |(ASCII) JCL to test SPITBOL| | 6 |SPITBOL.AWS |AWS file representing unlabelled tape (NL) that contains files 3 to 13, in order, from the standard distribution (see list above)|

Step 1: Load files from AWS tape onto disk

Inspect SPT-LOAD.JCL and modify the JCL statements (dataset names, etc.) as necessary. Mount the AWS tape file and submit SPT-LOAD.JCL to a job reader.

Step 2: Link SPITBOL compiler

Inspect SPT-LINK.JCL and modify the JCL statements (dataset names, etc.) as necessary. Mount the AWS tape file and submit SPT-LINK.JCL to a job reader.

Step 3: Test compiler

Inspect SPT-TEST.JCL and modify the JCL statements (dataset names, etc.) as necessary. Mount the AWS tape file and submit SPT-TEST.JCL to a job reader.

You're done. Enjoy!

Note about floating point exceptions: When running SPITBOL 360 on Hercules, Hercules may log a number of floating point exceptions. Don't be alarmed! SPITBOL 360 uses these exceptions to control execution; they are to be expected.

Reassembling the Compiler

Although complete source for the SPITBOL 360 compiler is provided as part of this distribution, DON'T reassemble it unless you're comfortable handling these issues:

ASCII Conversions. For those who are planning to convert the EBCDIC source to ASCII and then back to EBCDIC for reassembly, be advised that many EBCDIC to ASCII conversions fail to translate all characters properly. For example, the not and vertical bar characters are often improperly translated.

Binary Characters. There are instances of binary, non-printing, EBCDIC characters in the assembly source.

Compiler/Library Assembly. Be sure to set up the DEFLMOD source library member accordingly.

Temporary Fixes (TFs). Modifying instructions or data in the assembly source may affect CSECT offsets. If so, you will need to adjust the offsets in V23TFS. If you're intent on modifying the compiler's source, consider obtaining the SPITBOL 370 distribution which does not require any patches.

If you do reassemble the compiler or library, you must reapply the TFs contained in file V23TFS. These TFs have already been applied to the object files provided with the distribution, so this step is not part of the installation procedure described above.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Robert Dewar and Ken Belcher for allowing me to re-release SPITBOL 360 under the GPL for all to use and study.

Thanks to Bob Lerche for helping me validate this release on a real IBM mainframe system.

Thanks to Jay Jaeger and Jay Maynard, both of whom validated this release on Hercules. Jay Jaeger also created the AWS tape file to make life simpler for Hercules users.

Bob Goldberg, 8 Nov 2001

spitbol/360

360